Full credit to London for coming back from 16-0 down after 20 minutes. We got the start I was hoping for, then we lost our way.
Guy Armitage is a player with some potential. Without him in the London team, I suspect we would have won a little more easily. He was very much their 'go to' man. In the end, the game could have gone either way and we were perhaps quite fortunate to win.
Matty Beharrell has been an excellent signing for us. I sometimes wonder where we'd be without him.
We played with an energy and enthusiasm early on, typified by some of the brave efforts made by Jordie Hedges. London looked ordinary. Once London got their act together, they started to look dangerous and we began to look ordinary.
Our line speed in defense was particularly poor in the second half. This gave London quite a lot of momentum. We weren't able to stop their forwards making good metres when driving out of their own half.
Whilst London had a plan that they stuck to well, our strategy seemed disjointed with too much one-man rugby. Watson Boas tried hard when he came on but I feel we missed the extra buzz we've had from Jez Litten. Rangi was really off the pace today.
League Table: (Pld,
Pts, Pts Diff,
Max Possible Points)
1) Whitehaven 17,
26, +130,
322) Oldham 17,
24, +230,
303) Newcastle 17,
23, +261,
294) Hunslet 17,
22, +241,
285) Dons 17,
20, +219,
266) Worky 18,
19, +126,
237) London 18,
15, -80,
19Matches left to be played:Whitehaven: Keighley (H), W Wales (H), Coventry (A) It’s hard not to see Haven finishing top now.
Oldham: Dons (H), Coventry (A), Hunslet (A). If Oldham beat the Dons, we cannot finish above them. If we win all three remaining games, and Oldham only beat Coventry, we could be level with them on points at the end of the season.
Newcastle: Coventry (H), N Wales (H), Keighley (A). Two wins for Newcastle sees them definitely finish above us. They should manage that.
Hunslet: London (A), Workington (H), Oldham (H). Three tricky games for Hunslet, although two of them are at home. We could do with London beating them in their next match.
Dons: Oldham (A), Keighley (H), Workington (A). Anything short of three wins probably means fifth place will be the best we can achieve. If we only beat Keighley, Workington could demote us to sixth spot but that would also mean Worky would have to beat Hunslet as well as beating the Dons in the last match.
Workington: Hunslet (A), Dons (H).
The Dons still have plenty to play for but a defeat at Oldham may mean we will finish fifth. A win at Oldham means we might still overtake Oldham and/or Hunslet to finish third or fourth.
With three games to go, we could still finish anywhere between third and sixth. I suspect it will go down to the last round of games to determine our final position. On the last day of the season we're at Worky whilst Hunslet are at home to Oldham.